KissMyWord

Shane Lee Yaw (born July 19, 1988), known professionally as Shane Dawson, is an American YouTuber, actor, writer, comedian, director, make-up artist and musician. He was one of the first people to rise to fame on video-sharing website YouTube, and has since maintained an online presence.

Dawson grew up in Long Beach, California, where he attended Lakewood High School. As a teenager, Dawson was bullied for his weight in school. He has two older brothers, Jacob Yaw (born 1980) and Jerid Yaw (born 1985). The siblings had a close relationship, and helped Dawson during these times. He has since lost 150 pounds (68 kg). He first became interested in making videos when he would turn in videos as school projects with his friends in high school. Dawson grew up in a low income household to a single mother.

In 2008, when Dawson was nineteen years old, he joined YouTube and began making videos. He rose to fame on the site, garnering over half a billion views by 2010. Most of his early work consisted of sketch comedy videos, where Dawson would play original characters, impersonate celebrities and make light of popular culture. During this time, Dawson also had a short-lived music career, releasing 6 original songs such as "Superluv!" and numerous parodies of popular music videos. In 2013 inspired by Howard Stern. Dawson launched his podcast, Shane and Friends, which ran for four years and produced 140 episodes. The following year, Dawson released his first and only feature film, Not Cool, and appeared on an accompanying 10-episode docu-series The Chair.

In 2015, Dawson began his conspiracy show on YouTube, a video series where he discusses a variety of conspiracy theories. They have become some of his most-viewed videos, including his 2019 web series Conspiracy Series with Shane Dawson, which is two parts in length that total over two hours. In late 2017, Dawson released his first docu-series on YouTube, in which he reconciled with his absent father. His most-viewed docu-series are about Jake Paul, Jeffree Star and TanaCon.

As of 2018, Dawson has released two New York Times best-selling books, I Hate Myselfie and It Gets Worse, and his three YouTube channels have accumulated over 6.5 billion views. Since 2017, he maintains one active channel, shane, which is one of the 100 most-subscribed YouTube channels with 23 million subscribers and over 5 billion views.

Personal life

Dawson lives in Calabasas, California with his fiancé, Ryland Adams.The two became engaged on March 19, 2019.Dawson has body dysmorphic disorder. In July 2015, Dawson came out as bisexual in a video posted on Shane Dawson TV. This announcement also confirmed his separation with his now ex-girlfriend, Lisa Schwartz.

Controversies

Dawson has been criticized for his racial comedy, particularly his use of blackface in several old skits, his use of the word "nigga" in one video and his jokes about "ghetto pranks" at VidCon in 2012. In 2014, YouTuber Franchesca Ramsey criticized Dawson on Tumblr, writing, "Shane has done his modern day minstrel show act AT VIDCON and faced no repercussions. It'd be nice if he'd acknowledge why these thing are problematic, apologize to his audience and stop doing them." Dawson later apologized for the jokes in a video, stating that he viewed the controversy as a "learning experience".

Dawson was later criticized for his 2018 documentaries The Mind of Jake Paul and The Secret World of Jeffree Star, with some arguing that Dawson was too sympathetic towards the racism scandals of both subjects. Some Twitter users used the hashtag #ShaneDawsonisOverParty following the final part of The Mind of Jake Paul.

In 2018, Dawson was the subject of a controversy regarding comments he had made about pedophilia on a 2014 episode of his podcast Shane and Friends, in which he published an apology video likening his comedic style at the time to that of shock jocks. The same comments were also the subject of a March 2019 controversy, coupled with controversy regarding comments he had made on a 2015 episode of the same podcast about engaging in sexual activity with his cat.

Dawson has also been criticized for his conspiracy theory content, as some feel that his videos about the flat Earth, moon landing hoax, and 9/11 hoax conspiracy theories, among others, contribute to YouTube's widespread issues with misinformation.